The National Churches Trust, formerly the Historic Churches Preservation Trust, is a British registered charity whose aim is "promoting and supporting church buildings of historic, architectural and community value across the UK". It carries out this aim by providing financial grants to repair and modernise church buildings, supporting projects to enable churches to remain open, collaborating with local Churches Trusts and volunteer bodies, providing practical advice, support and information, and working to promote public awareness of the needs of churches. Its forerunner was the Historic Churches Preservation Trust, whose functions it has taken over, together with those of the Incorporated Church Building Society.

History

By the middle of the 20th century, the fabric of many British church buildings was in a poor state of repair. This had followed socioeconomic changes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including population changes, followed by neglect during the Second World War. Matters came to a head in 1950 with public statements, including an editorial

Editorial

An opinion piece is an article, published in a newspaper or magazine, that mainly reflects the author's opinion about the subject. Opinion pieces are featured in many periodicals.-Editorials:...

 in The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

. About this time the Pilgrim Trust

Pilgrim Trust

The Pilgrim Trust is a London-based charitable trust. It was founded in 1930 by a two million pound grant by Edward Harkness, an American philanthropist. The trust's first secretary was former civil servant, Thomas Jones....

 declared that it was ceasing to give grants for repairs to individual churches. The Church of England Assembly (now the General Synod of the Church of England

General Synod of the Church of England

The General Synod is the deliberative and legislative body of the Church of England. The synod was instituted in 1970, replacing the Church Assembly, and is the culmination of a process of rediscovering self-government for the Church of England that had started in the 1850s.- Church Assembly: 1919...

) established the Repair of Churches Commission to decide what should be done about the problem. This resulted in the creation of the Historic Churches Preservation Trust, which was registered as a charity in 1953. Its first Secretary and Executive Committee Chairman was Ivor Bulmer-Thomas

Ivor Bulmer-Thomas

Ivor Bulmer-Thomas CBE FSA, originally Ivor Thomas was a British journalist and author who served eight years as a Member of Parliament...

, a Conservative

Conservatism

Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...

 politician, the role of Secretary being taken over later in 1953 by Hugh Llewellyn Jones. In order to ensure that the grants it gave were appropriate, local advisory panels of architects were established, later replaced by the Committee of Honorary Consultant Architects, who continued to advise the Trust until 2002. At the time of its foundation, it was estimated that a total of £4 million was necessary to fulfil its aims. Money was raised in a variety of ways, including appeals on radio and television, exhibitions, concerts, individual and corporate donations, and a benefit dinner. Support was received from charitable trusts, including the Pilgrim Trust, the Dulverton Trust, the Manifold Trust

Manifold Trust

The Manifold Trust was created by Sir John Smith in 1962 to generate funds for conservation in the UK, particularly of buildings, and to support other culturally important activities, including churches, arts, education, and the environment....

, and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.

From the time of its creation, the Trust gave grants for the repair of both active and redundant

Redundant church

A redundant church is a church building that is no longer required for regular public worship. The phrase is particularly used to refer to former Anglican buildings in the United Kingdom, but may refer to any disused church building around the world...

 churches, although the care of redundant churches was strictly beyond its remit. In 1960 the Bridges Commission recommended that "a new fund be set up under a new Pastoral Measure to preserve churches of acknowledged historic or architectural worth". The Pastoral Measure of 1968 led to the creation of the Redundant Churches Fund (later the Churches Conservation Trust

Churches Conservation Trust

The Churches Conservation Trust, which was initially known as the Redundant Churches Fund, is a charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk, those that have been made redundant by the Church of England. The Trust was established by the Pastoral Measure of 1968...

), which provided money from both the Church of England and the State for the preservation of redundant churches.

It took until 1984 to raise the first £4 million. After that the size of donations tended to be larger. and by the end of 2005 a total of over £27 million had been raised. In 2000 alone over £2.2 million was received. The size of grants made to churches has varied greatly. Up to 2005 the smallest grant had been £33 4s

Shilling

The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...

 4d

Penny

A penny is a coin or a type of currency used in several English-speaking countries. It is often the smallest denomination within a currency system.-Etymology:...

 to a church in Mileham

Mileham

Mileham is a village approximately mid way between East Dereham and Fakenham in Mid Norfolk. The village sits astride of the B1145 Kings Lynn to Mundesley road that dissects Mid Norfolk west to east.It is the old coaching road from Kings Lynn to Norwich and then onto Great Yarmouth.The name Mileham...

, Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

, in 1957, and the largest grants were of £100,000 each to a church in Portsea

Portsea

Portsea is an area of the English city of Portsmouth, located on Portsea Island, within the ceremonial county of Hampshire.The area was originally known as the Common and lay between the town of Portsmouth and the nearby Dockyard. The Common started to be developed at the end of the seventeenth...

, Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

, in 2000, and to Selby Abbey

Selby Abbey

Selby Abbey is an Anglican parish church in the town of Selby, North Yorkshire.-Background:It is one of the relatively few surviving abbey churches of the medieval period, and, although not a cathedral, is one of the biggest...

 in 2005. The criterion for the award of a grant was "for essential repairs to any place of worship (with the exception of cathedrals) over 100 years old which is of a recognized Christian denomination and is open for public worship". Initially available only to churches in England, the scheme was extended to churches and chapels in Wales in 1987. The decision to award a grant is made by the Trust's Grants committee. Some of the churches that have been helped are now closed and have been declared redundant

Redundant church

A redundant church is a church building that is no longer required for regular public worship. The phrase is particularly used to refer to former Anglican buildings in the United Kingdom, but may refer to any disused church building around the world...

. These are now cared for by the Churches Conservation Trust

Churches Conservation Trust

The Churches Conservation Trust, which was initially known as the Redundant Churches Fund, is a charity whose purpose is to protect historic churches at risk, those that have been made redundant by the Church of England. The Trust was established by the Pastoral Measure of 1968...

. In 1983 the Historic Churches Preservation Trust took over the management of the Incorporated Church Building Society. This had been founded in 1818 to assist Anglican

Anglicanism

Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...

 churches of any age, sometimes giving grants for new churches. In the early 1990s a Friends' scheme was instituted. In 2006 the Trust took over the functions of the Open Churches Trust. The Historic Churches Preservation Trust was succeeded by the National Churches Trust in 2007.

Present day

The National Churches Trust is a registered charity. The full definition of its objectives and activities are "to promote the conservation, repair, maintenance, improvement, and reconstruction of churches (to mean any recognised Christian places of worship, chapel or meeting house in the UK), and of such monuments, fittings, stained glass, furniture, organs, bells, in such churches and to promote the building, development of churches in the United Kingdom". In the year ending 31 December 2009 its income was £1,895,258, of which 87.4% came from voluntary sources, and it spent £2,712,564, of which 89.4% was used for its charitable activities. It employed eight people. The Trust is managed by a board of Trustees, and decisions to award grants are decided by the Grants Committee. Grants of £10,000 and above are made for urgent structural repairs, and grants of between £5,000 and £25,000 are made towards the installation of facilities for such functions as toilets and catering. Since 2005, the Trust has distributed over £9 million to over 1,000 churches. It supports church buildings of any denomination that are members of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland

Churches Together in Britain and Ireland

Churches Together in Britain and Ireland is an ecumenical organisation. The members include most of the major churches in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. It was formerly known as the Council of Churches of Britain and Ireland...

, and covers the whole of the United Kingdom. It does not own churches, and does not support redundant church

Redundant church

A redundant church is a church building that is no longer required for regular public worship. The phrase is particularly used to refer to former Anglican buildings in the United Kingdom, but may refer to any disused church building around the world...

es. It receives no funding from the Government or from church authorities. Its income is derived from individual donations, and from parishes, Trusts and Foundations, and from investment income. As of 2011 the Trust is not contributing towards the building of new places of worship. The Trust works in conjunction with a network of Local Churches Trusts that cover most of the country. Members of the public can become a Friend of the National Churches Trust.

Further reading

• Jones, Lawrence E. (1965) A Guide to Some Interesting Old English Churches. 70 pp. London: Historic Churches Preservation Trust